Afghanistan Country Report April 2021

Poor diets and the food systems that support them are major drivers of malnutrition in all its forms,
including avoidable ill health, throughout the world. But, with appropriate policy and legislative
measures, food systems could be better shaped to support universal goals like zero hunger and
good health and wellbeing.

In low- and middle-income countries, small and medium enterprises (SME) provide the bulk of the food that people eat, especially people who are resource-constrained1. Unfortunately, not enough of the food that is available, affordable and desirable, from SMEs and other sources, is nutritious, safe and sustainable.

Though SMEs are engaged in and contribute to nourishing the world, they face many barriers, including operating in environments that do not always reward good practices. In many cases, SMEs need more support and appropriate incentives if they are to underpin the major changes in our food systems that are needed to protect people and the planet.

The Enabling Business to Advance Nutrition Index (EBANI) is a tool created by the Global Alliance
for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network (SBN) thatprovides insights into the nutrition and food policy landscapes in 30 countries where SBNs are present. Once EBANI has been launched, it will be available on the SBN website, with theexpectation of future updates to the Index every 2 to 3 years.

EBANI measures the policy and legislative enablers for increasing private-sector investment in safe, nutritious food in these countries. It serves as a global and national advocacy tool that can help to provide key recommendations to governments on how they can make their policy and legislative environments more enabling for businesses to contribute to advancing positive nutrition outcomes.

This national EBANI report for Afghanistan aims to provide policy-specific insights to facilitate discussions between the national, regional and local government representatives and SBN members regarding existing policies and how to align future policies or programmes to better support nutritious and safe diets. It is also a tool that other interested stakeholders, such as those in civil society, can use to identify areas for developing and targeting advocacy efforts.

Due to the extent of the areas covered by the indicators, potential initiatives will likely need to be further prioritised. Identification of priorities could consider factors such as what are the salient food systems issues in-country, which existing policies have had impact, and where are policy gaps contributing to nutrition-related challenges. To support the setting of country priorities, a set of observations and recommendations are included, identifying where possible regional or worldwide good practices to inform how the country’s policies may be adapted to support an improved EBANI performance across its 22 indicators.